


sun on the horizon

by olympvs



Category: Shades of Magic - V. E. Schwab
Genre: AGoS spoilers, Canon Compliant, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Magic Lessons, Missing Scene, lila is bad at caring about people but god she's trying
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-18
Updated: 2020-12-18
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:01:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,309
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28143525
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/olympvs/pseuds/olympvs
Summary: "You know, it wouldn’t kill you to take a night off. Probably.” He quirked his lips. “Though, knowing you, if I’m not keeping you entertained you’ll find something more troublesome to poke your nose into.”“There’s only so much I can do while on a ship in the middle of open water,” Lila pointed out.“You’d find a way, Bard. I have faith in that.”--Lila and Alucard continue exploring magic while on their way back to London. They also run into some trouble along the way.
Relationships: Delilah Bard & Alucard Emery
Comments: 4
Kudos: 10
Collections: Yuletide 2020





	sun on the horizon

**Author's Note:**

  * For [CountingNothings](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CountingNothings/gifts).



> For CountingNothings - I hope you enjoy this! I absolutely _loved_ your prompts, and they were so fun to work with. I really adore these two, and I hope I captured some of what you love in them as well! 
> 
> This fic takes place while the Night Spire is headed back to London for the Essen Tasch. I've fudged the timeline a little by having them make an extra stop, but is otherwise canon compliant. 
> 
> A very heartfelt thank you to Nic, who encouraged me to keep going on this story when I wasn't sure I'd be able to see it through. You are an inspiration, always <3\. Title is from the song "Foreign Hands" by George Ogilvie, which is a very Delilah Bard song imo.

“You’re not focusing.” 

A handful of small rocks hovering in the air wavered before they clattered onto the table below. 

“I _was_ focused before you spoke,” Lila gritted, but she knew it was only partially true.

They had spent the better part of the past three days sailing through an unexpected storm, and even with Alucard doing his best to keep the ship steady it was rough going. The crew had hardly slept, and Lila was exhausted. Still, when Alucard had suggested they skip the magic lessons on the first clear evening, Lila had harangued him until he changed his mind. 

She had forgone the usual wine, afraid that even one glass would leave her more boneless and cloudy headed than normal, but Alucard didn’t seem to have the same reservations. He sat back in his chair, glass held loosely in one hand as he regarded Lila through hooded eyes, the low fire casting a soft glow throughout his cabin. 

“You’re only going to make so much progress working yourself until you drop, you know. I know you want to learn ‘everything’,” he said, parroting her own words from a few months ago back at her, “but it wouldn’t kill you to take a night off. Probably.” He quirked his lips. “Though, knowing you, if I’m not keeping you entertained you’ll find something more troublesome to poke your nose into.” 

“There’s only so much I can do while on a ship in the middle of open water,” Lila pointed out. 

“You’d find a way, Bard. I have faith in that.” 

Lila didn’t answer him. Instead, she looked down at the pile of rocks she had been trying unsuccessfully to break apart and reform. Ever since she had caught a glimpse of what Alucard could _really_ do with magic, back at the Inroads tavern in Sasenroche, Lila was trying to push the boundaries of what magic could do. Sure, she could make fire race down her blades, or push a small section of the sea, but she knew she was capable of so much more. There was so much possibility within magic, the depths of which Lila was still trying to understand, and Alucard was the first step towards unlocking that potential. 

He was technically right that Lila didn’t have to learn everything right away. But the _Essen Tasch_ loomed on the horizon, vague plans beginning to take shape in the back of Lila’s mind, and all the while London drew ever closer. 

She had to be better. 

“I’m trying again,” she said instead. 

_Love seeketh not itself to please_ , she recited to herself, eyes focused as the rocks rose once more. She had chosen Blake’s _The Clod and the Pebble_ this time — a little on the nose, perhaps, but it got the job done. 

At least, it seemed to at first. The rocks rose, and then under her watchful eye begun to crumble away into sand. Then Esa chose that moment to jump onto the table, nearly upending the decanter of Alucard’s wine. He reached forward quickly, snatching it as it wobbled precariously. 

Lila’s concentration broke yet again, sand and little bits of pebbles falling into Esa’s fur. The cat shook itself unhappily, yowling in Lila’s direction. Lila glared right back. 

"I'd appreciate you not looking at my cat as though you want to set her on fire," Alucard said, but he was amused. 

Lila sighed, leaning back in her chair. She wanted to slump into it, to close her eyes and rub at her temples in an attempt to stave off the headache slowly making itself known, but she wouldn't allow herself to relax that far in Alucard's company. 

"What's the rush in learning all this anyway?" he asked, and his voice was casual, but Lila knew from the way he was looking nonchalantly at his wine glass and not at her that the question was anything but. 

"Oh, just trying to catch up so that when I eventually throw you overboard and take your spot as Captain there won't be any complaints by the rest of the crew." 

Alucard leveled her with a flat expression and Lila merely grinned back, her smile dagger-sharp. 

A particularly large wave rocked the ship, Lila's balance tilting, and they both looked quickly to the porthole in the side of Alucard's cabin trying to assess if it was an after effect of the storm. The wave passed and the ship settled, and Lila could feel rather than hear their shared breath of relief. 

"Go to bed," Alucard said. He cut Lila off before she could protest. "We're both exhausted, and you know it's not worth arguing with me. Sleep, and we can try again tomorrow. Besides, you're no use in my crew if you're dead on your feet all day." 

Lila wanted to argue, out of sheer force of habit more than anything else, but she was fighting a battle against the weight of her eyelids and wasn't keen on losing it with Alucard watching. 

"Fine," she said instead, and swept up the remnants of their element practice into a pouch. 

"Oh," Alucard called out, just as she reached the door. "We're docking in Nochte in a few days, don't forget. I'll need you and Stross to get together some of our latest acquisitions before we do." 

Lila nodded. In truth, with everything else going on she had all but forgotten. She was looking forward to a night on land though, especially after the past week. She trudged her way back to her cabin, carefully fitted her back to the wall, and rested a blade upon each knee before her eyes finally slipped close. 

* 

She made Alucard stick to his word, and they found the time for two more lessons before the town of Nochte began to crest over the horizon. The practice was good, and she needed it, but privately even Lila could admit that she was relieved to have a night off. 

She, Stross and Handsome Vasry were responsible for restocking the ship for the rest of their journey back to London, while Alucard and Lenos were off to sell some of the wares they had "requisitioned" from a ship a few weeks back in the name of the Empire. Or whatever spiel it was that Alucard usually gave. 

Lila was impatient as they shopped, but she hid it well, working to keep her restlessness only visible in her hands resting by her side, her thumb tapping each fingertip in a repetitive motion over and over. 

By the time her group hauled the supplies back to the ship and handed them off to the crew waiting there, the anticipation was nearly overwhelming. She gave a cursory farewell and then she was off, attempting to track Alucard through the unfamiliar streets of Nochte. 

It was harder than it had been in Sasenroche, having been apart from him for some hours. But he had pointed in the general direction that he and Lenos were headed in when they all split ways, and at this point Lila considered herself somewhat of an expert in tailing Alucard. He was past the point of berating her for it, even if he groused about it on occasion. 

Lila had never been to Nochte before, but months at sea had given her plenty of experience with port towns, and besides that she had a whole lifetime’s worth of studying the way a city worked. She had learned the flow of it; how to move through a crowd, how to look at someone with a single glance and judge whether they’d have the information she needed or not. 

She used it to navigate her way towards the open-air market, and when a quick scan showed no sign of her captain, she followed her instincts further into the heart of the city, where the streets became narrower, darker. A mistrustful look here, a store with shuttered windows there. There was a less savory market here — there was a less savory market in every city, if you knew where to look. And Lila had a feeling that some of Alucard’s recent wares might require more discerning eyes. 

She expected, at some point sooner rather than later, to catch sight of Alucard. To see his familiar long coat, his brown hair swept back in a ponytail, the sapphire winking in his brow as he bartered with whatever poor shopkeep he had alighted upon. What she wasn’t expecting was to see Lenos in the mouth of an alleyway, propped against a brick wall, chest heaving. Blood dripped down his chin. 

Lila slid out of the shadows, coming up to Lenos’s side. She was sure if he had his wits about him he would’ve startled more. As it was he merely twitched, hands coming up reflexively before he realized who she was and lowered them. 

“Lenos. What happened?” 

His voice was hoarse in a way Lila had never heard before.

“I’m not sure, exactly. We were just selling off the last of our items and then—,” he broke off and winced, arm coming up to cradle his ribs. “I didn’t get a proper look at them. One moment we were leaving the store and the next… there must’ve been a dozen of them. They surrounded Alucard, mostly. He fought, we both did, but one of them hit me hard between the ribs and I went down. Next I looked up they were dragging Alucard off that way.” 

He waved a hand further down the alley and now Lila saw it — the shattered stones of the pathway, the scratch marks along the wall. 

Lila burned with the impulse to take off down the alley, see if she could catch up with the attackers before they got too far. But Lenos coughed, and she caught sight of blood smeared across his front teeth. Lila’s teeth gnashed together.

“Damnit. Lenos, we need to get you back to the ship.” 

Lenos surprised her, shaking his head. 

“M’fine. Go after the captain.” As he spoke he straightened up, pushing away from the wall with one hand.

“Are you sure?” Lila’s body was already shifting instinctually.

“Yes, go,” and Lenos had hardly gotten the words out before Lila was halfway down the alley. 

It wasn’t a hard trail to track. There were signs of struggle all the way through; swaths of earth torn from the ground, a solitary discarded sword stained with blood. 

Lila’s favorite knife — _Lenos’s_ old knife — slid from its sheath into her waiting palm. She thumbed the hidden notch along the hilt, feeling the blade split into two. She put one in each hand and held them by her sides as she ran. 

She passed one body, and then another, and then two more piled together before she finally caught up. 

There was Alucard, face slightly swollen and blood running in steady rivulets down the torn sleeve of one shoulder. He was favoring his right side but otherwise seemed composed. He had his back to the stone wall of a home, facing a group of people swathed in navy blue and black, all with blades pointed in his direction. 

Six in front of Alucard, four that Lila had passed. Either Lenos had miscounted, or the others had perhaps run off for help. Lila wasn’t keen on sticking around long enough to find out. 

“Bard,” Alucard said, voice perfectly even. His gaze never broke from the attackers, but Lila saw a few of them look her way. “Nice of you to join.” 

“Oh, you know me,” she said, and slowly brought her blades together in front of her. “Never want to miss a good fight.” She struck them together and called flames to lick up the metal. 

One man twitched, but Lila’s left blade was already out of her hand, buried in his chest before his sword could fully extend in her direction. 

She leapt forward, pulling the dagger from his chest and reigniting it before whirling around to block a blow from a scimitar just inches above her throat. She darted sideways, crossing both blades up in front of her as she parried yet again. The woman in front of her had a mask covering the lower half of her face, but her eyes narrowed, and despite herself Lila grinned. Nothing made her blood sing so much as a good challenge. 

They circled one another, evaluating. Lila feinted with her left hand but the woman barely moved. The next time Lila flicked her wrist she did let go of the blade, flames flickering outward as it spun. The woman knocked it away with her scimitar, and the dagger clattered the ground. Lila moved to pull another knife from the sheath around her ankle, but she misjudged the distance between her and the woman and barely sidestepped in time to avoid being slashed across the middle. 

As it was the scimitar caught her in her upper thigh, the wound short but deep. Lila ground her teeth together against the burning pain, thrusting out with her one blade still encased in flames. She was knocked away easily, but it gave her enough time to pull out her other knife, and with both in hand she advanced with fervor. 

The sound of metal against metal rang out in the air. Lila searched desperately for a slip in the woman’s defense, but she was quick. Every move Lila made was stopped, and Lila was constantly adjusting for the slight delay in her leg. She cursed when another jab by the woman nearly caught her upside her cheek, and in that moment she felt the ground beneath her begin to rumble. She rolled backwards just as the earth erupted, knocking the woman’s head back with a sickeningly loud crack. She caught a glimpse of Alucard with his hand outstretched in her direction before he turned quickly, summoning wind to knock away two approaching figures.

She bounced up on the balls of her feet and nearly knocked her head against someone’s jaw. She jumped back, thrusting upward, the tip of her blade just barely connecting with their chest. They thrust their hand forward and the air twisted, buffeting Lila. She stumbled back a few steps before she pulled at the ground below her, dragging the stone up behind her legs to anchor herself. 

She immediately pushed off the low, makeshift wall, and used the momentum to barrel past the wind. She drove upward with her right hand, dagger burying itself in the underside of the person’s chin. They gurgled softly before their legs buckled and gave out. A flurry of motion drew Lila’s attention to another robed figure, who had broken away from Alucard to dart in her direction. 

Her gaze caught on the space behind them, where her dagger from earlier lay discarded. She reached her consciousness forward, feeling for the familiar shape of her favored blade. She stretched out her hand and called it to her, and even in the midst of a fight she appreciated the thrill it gave; to watch the blade tremble and then hurtle forward, embedding itself in the back of her would-be attacker. She watched as they arched, mouth open in a soundless cry of pain. Within a moment she had moved forward, slicing their throat, and the body crumpled at her feet. She turned, daggers at the ready, only to see Alucard standing above two bodies. 

Her eyes darted from side to side but the silence in the street was deafening. There was no one else coming, at least for the moment. 

With no immediate threat, the blood rushing in Lila’s ears began to calm. She suddenly and acutely felt the pain in her upper thigh. It throbbed, and she grimaced as she looked down at it, testing her leg’s strength. Her thigh burned, but her leg didn’t buckle, so she felt reasonably assured that the blade hadn’t been poisoned at the least. All she needed was a bandage, and a strong drink wouldn’t hurt either.

“Well,” Alucard said after a moment. He sounded slightly out of breath. Apart from the previous wounds Lila couldn’t see any egregious injuries, and the fact that he was standing upright seemingly without too much trouble boded well. 

Lila moved, collecting her fallen knives. She slid the twin blades against each other until they clicked into place, becoming a single dagger once more. 

“We should probably leave, before more of them show up.” 

Alucard nodded once. He took a step forward, wincing when his weight fell upon his left side. Lila raised an eyebrow in silent question. 

“My ankle. It’s fine, trust me.” Suddenly his eyes widened. “ _Sanct._ Where’s Lenos?” 

“He’s all right. Found him before I found you; he’s a little beat up, but he seemed to think he could make it back to the ship by himself.” 

Alucard looked at Lila for a long moment, and she felt her hackles rise. “What. You think I’d leave him bleeding out in some alley way? Even I’m not that heartless.” 

Alucard just continued to look at her before he shook his head. “Let’s get out of here.” 

They managed to make their way back to the ship without too much trouble; they attracted a few stares, but none of them were particularly hostile, so Lila let them roll off of her. More people chose to actively avoid looking at them, and Lila thought to herself that the sooner they left Nochte the better. 

A cry went at the docks when they were spotted. Tav and Handsome Vasry came rushing forward, but Alucard waved them off. 

It was impressive, Lila could admit: the way he looked perfectly composed and commanding despite what they had just been through. His shoulders were held back and his chin was slightly raised, and he looked every inch the captain in control, even with the bruising beginning to show on his cheek and his torn sleeve shifting slightly in the breeze.

“Is Lenos here?” Alucard asked. 

Tav nodded, jamming a thumb over his shoulder. “Yeah, Stross is patching him up in his cabin. ‘S got a nasty cut along his side, but he should be fine within a week or so.” 

Vasry noticed the wound still sluggishly bleeding from Lila’s thigh and winced. “That doesn’t look great either, Bard. Need that seen to?” 

Lila stiffened, unconsciously adopting the same pose as Alucard before she purposefully relaxed her shoulders and did her best to project an unaffected air. 

“Looks worse than it is.” She let a smirk pull across her lips. “It’ll take more than a little something like this to best the Sarows.” 

Vasry grinned, laughing loud and open. 

“Right you are. Captain?” he prodded, looking meaningfully around the port and then back to the open waters. 

“Our business here is done. Let’s get back on course.” With that Alucard strode forward and up the gangway, not sparing a glance back. 

Lila rolled her eyes and followed suit, just barely managing to avoid stabbing Vasry in the forearm when he thumped a playful fist against her shoulder. 

* 

To his credit, Alucard didn’t look surprised when Lila pushed open the door to his cabin that evening. She dropped into her usual chair while he pulled out a second wine glass, pouring from his decanter with a heavy hand before sliding the glass across the table. 

Lila took it and downed half the drink in one go, warmth flooding pleasantly through her veins. Alucard tipped an eyebrow up at her, sapphire catching the firelight. Lila raised an eyebrow back. 

Finally, she said, “Are we going to talk about your little excursion this afternoon?” 

“Oh it was quite productive, thank you for asking. I’m sure the Empire will be very pleased with our disposal of the more disagreeable items we’ve come across.” 

“You know that’s not what I meant.” 

“Did you want to talk about your little knife trick from earlier? It was impressive, I’ll give you that. Seems like these lessons might be paying off after all.” 

In truth, Lila _was_ pleased the way she’d wielded magic earlier. She hadn’t had time to stop and carefully recite Blake, or to overthink the way her body was reacting to the push and pull of magic’s energy. She had simply visualized what she wanted, reached out, and done it. There was satisfaction in it, the way she had been able to control the blade with such ease. But she wouldn’t let herself be so easily swayed off course.

“Alucard.” 

“Bard.” 

Lila growled in frustration. “So we’re just going to ignore the fact that you were almost kidnapped today?” 

Alucard waved a hand, looking offended. “‘Almost’ implies that there was any chance those fools would actually succeed. I was inconvenienced at best. Besides,” he said, leaning forward to smile lazily at Lila. “I’m more interested in how you came rushing in to back me up. Very heroic, Bard. Not your usual style. One might even think you were concerned about me.” 

Lila looked away, jaw ticking. 

“I didn’t think it’d be great for morale if I let you get done in at some random port. And you’re still useful to me, so I might as well keep you around.” 

“Hmm, what I’m hearing is that you care about me.” 

Lila’s lip twitched in the approximation of a snarl. “You’re just hoping you can stop sleeping with one eye open,” she said, and there was none of the usual playfulness in her voice. “Alucard, who were those people? Are we going to have to watch our backs the entire time we’re sailing back to London?” 

Alucard sat back in his chair, and all at once Lila was struck by the change in his demeanor. There was nothing specific to point to, but she could see the shift clear as day. He was — frustrated, perhaps, but more than that he seemed disinclined to play their usual game of running verbal circles around one another until somebody slipped up. 

“They were no one important. The closer we get to London the more likely it is that I’ll be recognized. I’m not left wanting for enemies, though that’s hardly something _you_ could fault me for. Maybe they knew me, maybe they could just sense that I was a powerful magician. Bounty hunters are far from rare. As you could see, numbers don’t equate to skill or any sort of meaningful threat. Maybe they’ll come after us, but more than likely whoever’s left will regroup and try to go after a new target that wanders into town.” 

Lila did recall Vasry saying something similar back at the Inroads, and she felt some of her ire begin to slip away. 

“But Lila,” Alucard continued, and his tone made her pause, made her really look at him. He was serious, but more than that he looked open, and it was that more than anything that unsettled her. Alucard was a man of many masks, and she wasn’t sure what to do with the sincerity of seeing him wear none at all. “Someday you’re going to stop seeing people as either threats or liabilities with no in between. And you’ll be better for it.” 

He said it not like he was asking it of her, but like he was promising it. Like it was a guarantee. 

It wasn’t what Lila was expecting, and it was so unlike anything Alucard had said to her before that it left her flustered, without an immediate retort. 

Instead she thought of Kell. Of his scowling face and the way it was so easy to get under his skin; of how he had put faith in Lila, despite it all. She thought of how she was so used to her body telling her to _run_ , to not get attached, to the point that the word felt threaded through her bones. But here she was on a boat headed back to Red London, to the center of all those horrible attachments, and when she searched inside herself for that familiar feeling she came up empty. She was cautious — she didn’t know how not to be — but it wasn’t the same as it had been before. 

After a silence that dragged on for too long, Lila affected the driest voice she could manage and said, “Thank you for the free advice. I’ll be sure to keep it in mind.” 

She stood up to leave, but before she did so she stopped to look through her bag. She pulled out a bundle of cloth and tossed it in Alucard’s direction, who managed to catch it just before it hit him square in the face. 

At his confused look she said, “It’s filled with ice, for the swelling. Grabbed it from the kitchen on my way here. Wouldn’t want you to ruin that pretty face of yours, seeing as how you rely on it so often.” 

Alucard’s eyes widened with surprise, and then softened into an emotion Lila didn’t care to try to name. 

“Thank you,” he said, and she knew it was for more than just the ice. She grunted in acknowledgement and then turned towards the door, leaving before their strange conversation could get any stranger. 

She started to head back towards her cabin, but abruptly took a turn and headed up onto the deck instead. She slipped silently past the few deckhands, around some crates, and found a solitary stretch of railing to rest against. 

The moon was only halfway lit, the waters dark but calm beneath her. She closed her eyes, inhaling the crisp night air and the salty tang of the sea. Change was on the horizon; it seemed synonymous with Red London. Lila thought of who she was, of where she’d come from, and who she was trying to become. 

In the darkness of night, with the steady rocking of the ship beneath her feet to ground her, Lila smiled. 


End file.
